It should be quite clear by now to everyone that we have a class of financial elite criminals that are looting the nation via lobby groups and a revolving door policy of installing corporate cronies and banking CEOs and insiders at the highest levels of government, the treasury and the Fed.

I watched 5 minutes of this lying piece of crap (Cramer) and couldn't take it anymore. This is the same BS Cramer was spouting when DJIA was at 14,000 and he PROMISED 15,000 DJIA was on the way. WRONG!!! The DJIA proceeded to fall to under 12,000, then rebounded back up to 13,000, and at 13,000 Cramer once again PROMISED that the DJIA would see 15,000 soon and told everyone "YOU HAVE TO BE IN THIS MARKET!!!". WRONG!!! The DJIA then fell all the way down to 6,500 and what was Cramer telling everyone to do?? - SELL, SELL, SELL!!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!! WRONG!!! We're now back to 8,500 on the DJIA and only now he's telling everyone, once again, "YOU HAVE TO BE IN THIS BULL MARKET!!!" WRONG again dumbass - way too late!!! Follow Cramer and I PROMISE YOU, you will lose money.

I'm about to short the hell out of this totally rigged and fake stock market. Use some common sense here people. How can Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and others report record or near record profits a month ago and now need billions more (after the BS stress tests) to keep them solvent??? Who's lying here???

What has improved in our economy so much as to justify an over 35% rally in two months on the SP500 (one of the biggest rallies in US history)??? NOTHING!!! IT'S ALL LIES!!!

We're being duped into the biggest ponzi stock market rally I've seen in my almost 15 years as an active stock trader. No doubt the intent is for Obama to take credit for making a difference in our economy while hoping, to high heaven, that there won't be an all out revolt when this government, once AGAIN, asks for billions and billions more in bailout money. Believe me folks, bailouts will never end under our current US pollicies.

Criminals are in charge of this country, and they won't stop stealing until there's either an all out revolt or the criminals start putting themselves in jail - my money says a revolt will happen long before any of these guys put themselvces in jail.

I live in Florida, and all BS put aside, things are getting so much worse down here. There is no bottom in anything that I can see (as Bernanke would have you believe) and everyone I know is scared as hell.

Bernanke is touting the end of the recession and that we will actually see growth in the second half of this year. That guy should go to JAIL for all his lies. This is the same guy who once said that there was no such thing as a housing bubble (the housing market collapsed very soon after he said that), that the banks in this country were sound and in good shape (the banks collapsed soon after that), and that the subprime disaster was contained and there would be little or no risk of a recession (he said that just last November!!!). Everyone knows where we're at today - IN THE GREATEST RECESSION SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930'S!!!

If you have any common sense, you'll get the hell out of stocks as fast as you can. Bank stocks are up, on average, over 100% and in some cases almost 200%...in only two months!!! Are you kidding me??? Did you know that total bank deposits are roughly 1.4 trillion (in the US), but write-offs to come yet are estimated to be (by some very smart people) close to 2 trillion??? The banks are INSOLVENT people! These stocks should be close to zero, not up almost 200%!!! There's NO reason for it other than the lies from our government, lies from the banks themselves, and lies from big Wall Street players. And while we're being lied to, those very same people are stealing all the bailout money, and we're the ones who'll be left paying for it all!!! This country should be SCREAMING for justice and fairness, but instead people are flocking to the stock market like flies on shit (sorry for the vulgarity). Too many are believeing all the bullshit being fed to them. Are so many people in this country really that clueless!!! God help us.

I love Don Harrold's videos and he's right a hell of lot more than he's wrong. He seems to think 8500-9000 is the time to start shorting. FAZ looking pretty good. Can't be perma anything, just a trader.

Getting ready to pull the trigger and sell out of the market again and then look for the next shorting opportunity. There is no sustained good news from any of the leading indicators, or lagging indicators. The deflationary spiral continues and wall st chooses to ignore it. The casino is open.

It seems many of the big banks like Citi, Bank of America, and a bunch of small ones are insolvent.

From memory, Bank of America needs something like another $33 billion collateral cushion, they already took something like $45 billion in TARP money, their market cap is something like $65 billion = insolvent.

And this ‘test’ I bet does not consider the banks having to endure an even worsening financial situation, a very likely outcome. Consider people are still losing their jobs, can’t pay mortgages, credit cards, and everyone is tapped out on debt.

More economic stimulus on the way! Cash fo clunkers program expanded to get rid of unattractive wives.

"Foreign mail-order brides would qualify under the program, but would be charged a hefty 33% tariff,...He added that a discounted tariff applied to brides imported from English-speaking countries such as Canada and England because they were “less of a drain” on the system, although “usually not as hot. That’s the tradeoff you have to make as an informed consumer.”

For full article:http://wineandexcrement.com/cash-for-clunkers-plan-expands-to-include-charmless-wives/1356/comment-page-1/#comment-446

Finally a stimulus bill that makes sense. Maintaining trophy wives is a long term expenditure that will greatly stimulate the economy.

Fix is totally in, it doesn't matter what this report says, mother government is going to fix it all by shafting the people and dumping countless billions more on these assholes. The housing bubble was proof that people will believe anything so long as it benefits their pocketbooks. Money is our god now and we give it complete devotion.

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2009 (AP) The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday U.S. financial institutions could suffer $2.7 trillion in losses from the global credit crisis, part of a worldwide total expected to top $4 trillion.

The $2.7 trillion estimate for the United States was nearly double the IMF's projection from just six months ago. The agency for the first time estimated losses for other regions of the world, saying the global total could surpass $4 trillion.

The IMF also warned that governments must take decisive policy actions to contain the fallout. The agency said governments have made progress getting extra money into the banking system, but more needs to be done to deal with toxic assets on banks' books and shutting down insolvent financial institutions.

It seems Ben's Helicopter is sputtering. Nobody wants his cash (Treasuries). This is the nail in the coffin for real estate.

"The auction is big news because now it's showing that maybe the Chinese don't want our bonds. If the cost of capital for the United States becomes more expensive, then the recession is going to take that much longer to get out of," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

Bank of America may need $34 billion in government handouts, according to a leak to the press ahead of the official stress test results tomorrow. That’s strange, because we seem to recall Ken Lewis announcing on April 20 that “we absolutely don’t think we need additional capital.”

Thirty-four billion dollars is hardly pocket change. So it seems odd that Lewis would have miscalculated BoA’s capital requirements by such a wide margin. Of course, Ken made this bold claim ahead of BoA’s 1Q results. Maybe he just got a bit confused. Or maybe he just didn’t want to tell the truth to investors, who would naturally take fright at such an admission.

Did anyone know that the budget for NASA this year is 18 billion, thats the entire space program for the USA this year and how much are all the banks getting to play the stock market?

It should be obvious they are taking the money and gaming the market for their own benefit, why no regs in place along with the bailouts?

Wouldn't it be better spent on space innovations that benefit society? Why doesn't someone do something about the total organized crime going on? Is the whole government and judicial system bought-off, I mean, everyone?

So many pardoxes: the market is rigged like never before, but you can still play, it's just that the rules have changed. What is the game now? hard to tell.

I have not traded since September. But when I do, it will be in-n-out like a hot one night stand!

I agree with earlier posts, the criminal activity with the banks and our government is revoltig and scary. Not surprised about the 401k's stopping/delaying withdrawals...got mine out from ING as their "safe" account was their Money Market - filled w/ MBS and CDO's and plenty of fees. Criminal!

Of course the fix was in. All the numbers coming out of dc are made up.here are examples...pay close attention to the "9s".

Job loss in March: 699k.

Stress test result: 599k needed by banks.

Unemployment rate in April; 8.9%

Initial and revised job loss figures for nov, dec, and jan also ended with a 9, so as not to kick the first digit to the next number which would make things worse, obviously. You'll also notice that the revised job numbers are typically higher than the initial number. Why? Because the feds think that when they publish the higher number a couple of months later people won't be paying attention...and they are right because the People are really Sheeple.